1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to automated customer support and service in a distributed computing environment and more particularly to a method of reducing a number of xe2x80x9clivexe2x80x9d support calls by providing intelligent, guided self-help in such an environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Technical support services and programs are designed to diagnose and solve hardware or software problems that users and/or customers encounter as they use computers. As businesses continue to move on-line, distributed computing environments become more complex and, thus, more difficult to troubleshoot. Indeed, entire businesses now desire to connect their critical business systems directly to employees, customers, vendors and other important constituencies. To this end, many internal or external business network applications are now being connected to the Internet""s World Wide Web to make the information accessible from anywhere using conventional browser software.
Traditional technical support centers place their emphasis on internal tracking and productivity tools, such as problem tracking systems. Such xe2x80x9cback endxe2x80x9d systems exist internally to the support organization and are usually transparent to the customer. Although back-end systems aid internal efficiency, they do little for the actual problem resolution process itself. Problem resolution is typically left to telephony-based technologies such as agent-based automatic call distribution (ACD) support centers and intelligent voice response (IVR) devices.
Such techniques attempt to diagnose and address problems on a remote node without actually having the technician travel to that node. The most common method of technical support is still a telephone conversation with tech support personnel. Other known techniques involve a network xe2x80x9cloginxe2x80x9d to the remote node so that the conditions may be evaluated from the technical support center""s viewpoint. The network connection may be used to run a diagnostic program on the remote node, or xe2x80x9cself-helpxe2x80x9d fix-it programs may. be downloaded to the remote note and executed there.
With the explosive growth of the Internet, yet another approach has become quite popular. This approach involves having the user access a Web server with support content in the form of support notes or FAQs. The user attempts to use this information to xe2x80x9cself servicexe2x80x9d his or her own problem. On its face, this strategy appears sensible as, theoretically, an effective self-service strategy would let users solve problems for themselves (e.g., through a Web browser), with the result of lower call volumes and better service. Unfortunately., however, using the Web as a publishing medium has not resulted in the desired benefits. Indeed, call avoidance has often evolved into xe2x80x9ccustomer avoidancexe2x80x9d. In particular, most normal users do not want to be xe2x80x9cdetectivesxe2x80x9d who have to make a set of guesses about the precise search strings that will get them to the right support solutions. Further, it is quite frustrating for users who cannot solve their problems (by self-service) to then be forced to go through the tedious exercise of later repeating to a support engineer information concerning their self-service attempts. The result is that end users often feel like their vendor is trying to push them away, with the inevitable result that this unintended result may actually occur.
Indeed, studies have shown that, even when a user knows an answer exists to his or her problem, he or she will be able to find the answer only 40% of the time. Further, many xe2x80x9canswersxe2x80x9d have very complex diagnoses and resolutions that are well beyond the capabilities of most computer users.
The present invention addresses this problem.
Guided self-help is facilitated through use of so-called xe2x80x9cactive contentxe2x80x9d pages that are selectively filtered and retrieved as a function of a set of declarative xe2x80x9cassertions.xe2x80x9d An assertion typically is an individual statement or building block of a larger, more comprehensive diagnostic map. An assertions map typically is a smaller, more focused version of a diagnostic map that is executed against a user""s computer system to diagnose a particular problem situation that the user has encountered. Active content is Web-based content (i.e., content viewable by a Web browser) that has one or more assertion maps initiated when certain actions are taken (e.g., selecting a link, clicking a button, or the like). A given piece of active content typically has a set of assertions associated therewith.
When a user encounters a technical problem, he or she navigates to a search window and enables a given command when entering a search string to identify fixes for the problem. A server process responds to the search request and downloads an assertion map that checks the state of the end user system and returns results. The server process then processes the conditions, filters content that matches conditions on the end user system, and ranks and displays search results to the relevant active content based on a hierarchy of assertion results.
According to the present invention, a method for automated technical support in a computer system begins by associating a set of one or more assertions with a given piece of active content in an active content library. In response to a user-initiated request, the active content library is searched as a function of answers to questions asked to the user""s computer system in the form of assertions.
The foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects and features of the present invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the invention. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention as will be described. Accordingly, other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the following Detailed Description.